I have ordered greenies for my two cavs. Bailey will be two in December and Dylan will be one in December. Dylan is about 8 kg but Bailey is only about 6kg if she's lucky lol.

Anyway I have noticed on the pack that it says they are only suitable for dogs over 7kg. Would you recommend that I don't give them to Bailey? Poor thing :lol:

brotymo

24th October 2008, 05:17 PM

I don't care for greenies since they have been linked to impaction problems. That is the reason for the warning on the limit to how many you give them on the package. I don't give them to my dogs at all.

Love my Cavaliers

24th October 2008, 06:45 PM

I refuse to give Greenie's anymore even though my dogs loved them. My oldest (now 7) basically inhales his food and just broke the Greenie's into a couple of big pieces asnd swallowed them. The end result - an impaction! Not fun to deal with. So please be careful.

Phoebe

24th October 2008, 07:03 PM

Hi Kimy, When I buy Greenies for Phoebe, I cut them in half with a pair of scissors. I remember someone posting a while ago about Greenies and the dangers of impaction, someone responded by saying that this could not happen anymore because they are now manufactured to be very easily digested. Does this ring a bell with anyone else? :confused:

rosiesmum

24th October 2008, 08:26 PM

I remember someone posting a while ago about Greenies and the dangers of impaction, someone responded by saying that this could not happen anymore because they are now manufactured to be very easily digested. Does this ring a bell with anyone else? :confused:

I remember that as well, so I did a search and came up with this thread - post 5 talks about them disintigrating in water.

I belong to a couple of other forums (mainly obedience) and most people seem to be very much against greenies. There are lots of other treats around, so why not just give greenies a miss? Of course the packaging says they're safe - they need to sell them! Personally, I wouldn't take the risk.

Kate and Oliver

Karlin

26th October 2008, 12:46 PM

I have given my dogs Greenies for 5 years and currently give them about every other day -- the dogs love them; they are probably their single favourite treat along with dried tripe. There were a few reported early problems with dogs that gulped them or chewed off pieces, and in specific cases where small dogs were given a too large Greenie (the case with a chihuahua widely publicised -- it should not even have been eating a Greenie much less a large one, it should have been given just the bits) but they were reformulated and are quite soft now. I have never, ever seen a single chunk of an undigested Greenie in a poop (and I pick up poops right after they are done as I have to walk the dogs for toiletting, so I know my dog's poop :lol:). Nonetheless as with any treat or chew, there could be a problem for any given dog and impactions are scary and can be fatal.

By contrast though, I have had numerous shards of bone either vomited up or pooped out from both raw chicken wings and raw chicken necks :eek:. Remember according to the raw gurus this is supposed to be impossible as the bone is supposed to be swiftly dissolved by the stomach acid. NOT TRUE as this happened with two different dogs of mine, Jaspar and Leo. I currently have on my shelf two very sharp pieces of chicken wing vomited up 12 hours later by Leo recently -- and he is a slow eater, not a gulper -- so that is the absolute end of me ever giving raw wings to the dogs.

Ask any vet and they will give a long list of items that have caused impactions and I think very few will cite Greenies. More likely objects include: socks, twine, bone (raw or cooked), dried jerky treats, pieces of chewed hard rubber dog toys, stones, sticks, pieces of leather, pieces of chewed cloth, bits of children's toys, pieces of rawhide, pieces of bully sticks -- in short, just about anything you might give a dog to chew on. Impactions are pretty rare but thy can happen as can many other unfortunate situations.

So it is really a matter of what people are comfortable with. There are plenty of raw advocates who say they have fed their dogs raw chicken carcasses for 20 years without any problem. But I have now had two very worrying instances of dogs vomiting back up very sharp undigested pieces of chicken bone over 12 hours after eating the wings, pieces that I was fortunate did not pierce a gut (a far more serious problem than an impaction) and to me that is way too risky. By contrast I've never had a single issue with Greenies, the old formula or the new one. Far more dogs have died from the food contamination issues recently.

So choosing treats or chews is always a matter of knowing your own dog and how that dog eats and weighing up the slight risks of practically anything your dog might eat. I've fed a wide variety of things over the past years and I am quit comfortable with

rawhide bones or shoes or other shapes -- they can chew off large pieces to easily
raw chicken wings
most other raw bones except marrow bones
cooked bones

On whether to give the 6k dog a petite Greenie for 7k dogs and above -- I have two dogs just over 6kg and give them this size. They are both slow chewers and not biting off pieces. But the recommendations are the recommendations so theoretically, you should not.

Karlin

26th October 2008, 04:58 PM

Oops a correction: I give mine the Teenie size for dogs 2-7kg. Jaspar is the only one of mine over 7kg (he's usually about 7.5-8). I don't think it matters that much whether you give them both petite or teenies.

frecklesmom

26th October 2008, 06:27 PM

Greenies have a pill pocket that was used by neighbor for their stubborn,smart,wily 18 yr old rat terrier this past week. This dog is a pain to give medicine to but the Greenie pillpocket went down the hatch and he wanted more :).

StellaLucyDesi

26th October 2008, 08:59 PM

:)Hi! I'm new here. I used to give greenies to my 3 furkids, Stella (cavalier), Lucy (border collie mix) and Desi (shih-poo). But I don't give them anymore because I have found other chews to use that I like better.
I really like these dental sticks called "Fresh Sticks" from a company called Health Pro. They are made of natural ingredients and are highly digestible. I also like these chews called PorkChomps. They are not rawhide (I won't use rawhide), but are made from porkhide and are easily digestible. My dogs love them and do well with them. I do use the pill pockets from the greenie company. They are great to give the dogs their glucosamine, etc!

kimy27

27th October 2008, 11:35 AM

Thanks everyone for the replys. I'll give them a try and see how we go. I'm sure Dylan will love them but Bailey is quite fussy so she might not even want to eat them :lol:

kimy27

28th October 2008, 02:06 PM

Well the dogs finally got to try the greenies. As I suspected Bailey wasn't interested but Dylan loved them! However I think he loved it too much because he gulped it down in 2 minutes. I don't think these treats are best for him :rolleyes: